The Dictionary of Human Geography

Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_R Date:2/4/09
Time:21:12:32 Filepath:H:/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-9781405132879/appln/3B2/re-
vises/9781405132879_4_R-new.3d

environmental and human safety or otherwise

of genetically modified foods is a case in point)

(Bingham and Blackmore, 2003). The latter,

institutional, element to risk debates has been

taken up most effectively by those researchers

who have investigated the dynamics of

trustrelationships between (expert) respon-

sible bodies and (lay) publics (Wynne, 1992,

1996). At the same time, and partly on account

of the inevitably of ‘not knowing’, risk enters the

vernacular as something that should be encour-

aged, for if risks are not taken then nothing cre-

ative or new can be generated. Nevertheless,

as Douglas (1992) and Lupton (1999) have

argued, risk increasingly refers to thehazards,

dangers, threats and contingencies of actions.

(See alsobiosecurity; security.) sjh

Suggested reading

Bingham and Blackmore (2003); Lupton (1999).

risk society An account of late modernsoci-

ety, developed by the German sociologist

Ulrich Beck in the mid-1980s (Beck, 1992),

emphasizing mid- to late-twentieth-century

shifts in (a) people’s awareness and experience

of uncertainties and dependencies, and (b)

the manner in which late modern societies

producerisks(see alsomodernity). Beck’s

Risk societywas in no way meant to suggest

that life had become more dangerous; rather,

it was the manner in which probabilities and

uncertainties were generated and were han-

dled that had changed. Life had become more

contestable, and contested – there were more

choices to be made, more matters to debate.

Macnaghten and Urry (1998, p. 254) provide

the following summary of these societal shifts:

(1) Public awareness of the riskiness of hith-

erto mundane aspects of daily life (e.g.

foodstuffs, travel, work life, reproduc-

tion) had intensified.

(2) There had been a growth in the degree of

uncertainty that surrounded those risks.

(3) People’s sense of dependency upon the

institutions and expertise responsible for

managing and controlling risks had grown.

(4) At the same time, the degree of public

trustin those institutions and in exper-

tise to manage risks effectively had

diminished.

These experiential and individualizing aspects

of risk society, which have drawn on acritical

theorytradition and which have much in com-

mon with Anthony Giddens’structuration

theory,havebeenreadilytakenupinsociology

and geography (Beck, Giddens and Lash,

1994). However, it is the account’s relevance

to late modern technologies and environment

that has perhaps had most geographical pur-

chase (Beck, 1995). In the former, Beck’s use

of the term ‘reflexive modernization’ suggests a

society more aware of its conditions, more able

to deliberate on futures and their conse-

quences. But this emphasis on the cognitive

capabilities of human societies is undermined

by another sense that Beck gives to reflexive

modernization.reflexivityhere refers to the

‘reverberations’ that actions entail (Latour,

2003). It is the realization that any action dis-

charges a series of consequences, only some of

which will be known or knowable prior to the

event. Instead of more mastery through greater

awareness, risk society signals a world in which

‘we become conscious that consciousness

does not mean full control’ (Latour, 2003,

p. 36). In this latter sense, Beck’s use of arche-

typal examples of risk society technologies,

including nuclear power (he was writing soon

after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986) and

chemical industries, emphasizes the shifts in

the reach of these returns (risks involve larger

swathes ofspaceandtime; they contribute to

globalizationand affect future generations)

and the entanglements that exist between what

had hitherto been considered as separate

spheres ofscienceand politics. It is here that

risk society might prefigure a more progressive

politics, not so much rooted in an inevitable

individualization of life choices, but generating

a sense of common matters of concern. sjh

Suggested reading

Beck (1992).

rogue state A term coined in the USA in

the 1990s, referring to a country that is

believed to imperil world peace through its

violation of international rules and norms.

The US government claims to use the follow-

ing objective criteria to identify a rogue state:

an authoritarian regime that violateshuman

rights; sponsorship ofterrorism; and devel-

opment of and trade in weapons of mass

destruction. Critics claim that ‘rogue state’ is

merely a rhetorical tool used to justify diplo-

matic and military action against a state that

challenges the geopolitical goals of the USA

(Hoyt, 2000), while others suggest that all

three criteria rebound on the recent past and

present of the USA itself. cf

Suggested reading

Chomsky (2000); Klare (1995).

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_R-new Final Proof page 658 2.4.2009 9:12pm

RISK SOCIETY